It’s one of numerous events planned for the nation’s 250th anniversary
As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution—the General Samuel Hopkins Chapter—is recognizing its 130th anniversary.
To mark those milestones, the local DAR chapter is attempting to hold an event each month of the year, said Gisele Purdy, the group’s registrar.
On Saturday, Feb. 14, the chapter will hold its annual tea and will recognize several community award winners. Those include three students for American history essay award winners; a Henderson County High School student and a Union County High School students as DAR Good Citizen essay award winners; a Conservation Award; a National Defense Youth Citizenship Medal; and a Community Service Award.
The tea will be 2 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Among the events planned this year are a JROTC program in March. In April, the local chapter plans to plant a tulip poplar tree, Kentucky’s state tree, as part of a partnership among the Kentucky Historical Society and Henderson County government.
In September, the group always recognizes Constitution Week. This year it will be Sept 13-19, and the chapter will put on a celebration at 10 a.m. Sept. 16 with elementary school students in the Henderson County Fiscal Court courtroom.
Finally, one of the chapter’s favorite projects is the Wreaths Across America initiative it puts on—with many other chapters in the nation—each December. In this, chapter members place wreaths on the headstones of military veterans at different cemeteries in the county.
This past December, the group placed wreaths in the Fairmont Cemetery and Mt. Zion Cemetery. They placed 132 wreaths in December, the majority of them at Fairmont Cemetery.
A wreath costs $17. The national organization gets $12 of that, while $5 goes to the local DAR chapter for each wreath.
With that money this past year, local DAR chapter members made 86 gift bags for veterans at the Western Kentucky Veterans Center in Hanson, said Purdy.
